The introduction of immunodiagnostic assays in the 1960s and 1970s greatly increased the number of analytes amenable to precise and accurate measurement. Radioimmunoassays (RIAs) and immunoradiometric (IRMA) assays utilize radioisotopic labeling of either an antibody or a competing antigen to measure an analyte. Detection systems based on enzymes or fluorescent labels were developed as an alternative to isotopic detection systems. Enzyme based assays proved to be more sensitive, faster, and less dependent upon expensive, sophisticated instrumentation.
The need for diagnostic assays having simpler formats, increased sensitivity with less dependence upon sophisticated and expensive instrumentation prompted investigators to try to harness the catalytic power of enzymes to develop these newer assays.
D. L. Bates, Trends in Biotechnology, pages 204-209, Vol. 5 No. 7 (1987), describes diagnostics which use a method of enzyme amplification to develop more sensitive and simple immunoassays. In this method a second enzyme system is coupled to the primary enzyme label, e.g., the primary enzyme can be linked catalytically to an additional system such as a substrate cycle or an enzyme cascade. Thus, the essence of enzyme amplification according to Bates is the coupling of catalytic processes wherein an enzyme is modulated by the action of a second enzyme, either by direct modification or by interaction with the product of the controlling enzyme.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,621, issued to Doellgast on May 26, 1987, describes application of an enzyme-linked coagulation assay (ELCA) to develop an amplified immunoassay using the clotting cascade to enhance sensitivity of detection of immune complexes. The process involves clot formation due to thrombin activated fibrin formation from insolubilized fibrinogen and labeled solubilized fibrinogen. Amplification of the amount of reportable ligand attached to solid phase is obtained only by combining use of clotting factor conjugates with subsequent coagulation cascade reactions. One of the disadvantages of this system is that it can only be used to measure the presence of materials which modulate the activity of one or more of the blood clotting factors. Another disadvantage is that the primary enzyme, thrombin, cannot be immobilized or coupled to a reporter or a member of a specific binding pair.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,090, issued to Harris on Jul. 31, 1984, describes a cascade amplification immunoassay requiring a combination of at least two sequential catalyses wherein a first enzyme activates a second enzyme which in turn acts upon the substrate.
Another amplification system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,042, issued to Self on Jul. 1, 1986, and U.K. Patent Application No. 2,059,421 which was published on Apr. 23, 1981, which disclose an immunoassay using an enzyme label to produce directly or indirectly a substance that is capable of influencing a catalytic event without itself being consumed during the catalytic event. More specifically, a primary enzyme system produces or removes a substance capable of modulating a secondary enzyme system which results in amplification. The enzyme systems use unconjugated enzymes to avoid the tendency to inactivate certain enzymes on conjugation.
European Patent Application Publication No. 123,265 which was published on Oct. 31, 1984, describes another cascade amplification immunoassay wherein a zymogen-derived-enzyme is coupled to a zymogen-to-enzyme cascade reaction sequence to obtain multiple stages of amplification in producing detectable marker material used to quantify analyte amount.
European Patent Application Publication No. 144,744, published Jun. 19, 1985, describes a specific binding assay based on enzyme cascade amplification wherein the label component employed in the detectant reagent is a participant in or a modulator of an enzyme cascade reaction wherein a first enzyme acts on a first substrate to product a second enzyme. The production of the second enzyme can be followed or the second enzyme can act on a second substrate to produce a third enzyme.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,980, issued to Boguslaski et al. on Mar. 9, 1982, describes a heterogenous specific binding assay using a conjugate formed of a specific binding substance coupled to the reactant, i.e., an enzymatic reactant. The ability of the reactant to participate in the monitoring reaction to detect the presence of analyte is altered by the presence of the ligand in the medium. Thus, the conjugate in its free state is more active in the monitoring reaction than in its bound state.
A heterogenous specific binding assay using enzyme amplification is described in British Patent Application No. 1,401,297 which was published on Jul. 30, 1975 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,825, issued to Rubenstein et al. on Mar. 15, 1983. Amplification is achieved by bonding the compound to be assayed or a counterfeit of it to an enzyme. The resulting enzyme-bound-ligand competes with free ligand for specific receptor sites. When the enzyme-bound ligand is displaced by the free ligand the enzyme is then free to react with a large number number of substrate molecules and the concentration of the remaining substrate or of the product can be measured. PCT International Publication No. WO 81/00725 which was published on Mar. 19, 1981 describes a method of determining a substrate in a sample which comprises converting the substrate to a product in a first stage of a cyclic reaction sequence and converting the product back to the substrate in a second reaction stage of the cyclic reaction sequence. At least one of the first and second reaction stages is enzyme catalyzed.
PCT Application having International Publication Number WO 84/02193, which was published on Jun. 7, 1984, describes a chromgenic support immunoassay wherein the analyte is contacted with an enzyme-labeled antibody and in which the signal generated by the reaction of the enzyme with its substrate is concentrated on an active support.
European Patent Application Publication No. 181,762, published on May 21, 1986, describes a method to determine enzymatic activity in a liquid sample by particle agglutination or inhibition of particle agglutination.
Substrate/cofactor cycling is another example of amplification which is based on the cycling of a cofactor or substrate which is generated by the primary enzyme label. The primary enzyme converts the primary substrate to an active form which can be cycled by two enzymes of the amplifier cycle. These two enzymes are provided in high concentration and are poised to turn over high concentrations of substrate but are prevented from so doing until the cycling substrate is formed. The product of the primary enzyme is a catalytic activator of the amplifier cycle which responds in proportion to the concentration of substrate and hence the concentration of the enzyme label.
In the early sixties, Lowry et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry, pages 2746-2755, Vol. 236, No. 10 (October 1961), described the measurement of pyridine nucleotides by enzymatic cycling in which the coenzyme to be determined was made to amplify an enzymatic dismutation between two substrates.
A more complex substrate cycling system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,054, issued to Rabin et al. on May 17, 1988. The Rabin system involves using a small enzymically inactive peptide fragment of an enzyme as a label and conjugated with the complementary fragment to form an enzyme which catalyzes a primary reaction whose product is, or leads to, an essential coenzyme or prosthetic group for a second enzyme which catalyzes a secondary reaction leading to a detectable result indicating the presence of analyte.
Vary et al., Clinical Chemistry, pages 1696-1701, Vol. 32 (1986) describe an amplification method suited to nucleic acids. This is the strand displacement assay which uses the unique ability of a polynucleotide to act as a substrate label which can be released by a phosphorylase.